1921 St-Gaudens $20 Double Eagle

Production of the St-Gaudens Double Eagle
continued through 1933. Many pieces from the 1920’s and 1930’s never
left US Treasury vaults. Some were shipped to other countries during
international transactions.

The gold recall of 1933 resulted in the melting of millions of gold
coins. Some of the dates stored in Treasury vaults were very nearly
eliminated completely.

One such date is the 1921 St-Gaudens Double
Eagle. Despite an initial
mintage of 528,500, only about 150 exist today.

It wasn’t until 1947 that the extreme scarcity of the 1921 Double Eagle
was fully realized. In responding to an inquiry from a collector, the
Mint confirmed that all but 25 of the 1921's were destroyed. It turns
out about six times that number survived – nonetheless, a very rare
(and popular) date indeed.

1921 St-Gaudens $20 double Eagle (XF-40 Condition)

The blue line above charts the percent
increase in retail price since Year 2000 of the 1921 St-Gaudens $20
Double Eagle in XF-40 condition. The price hikes are consistent and
impressive, increasing in value many times. The red line measures the
percent price increase over the same time period of our Rare Coin Values Index, which is comprised of a
representational group of 87 rare US coins. The purpose of maintaining
the Index is to estimate the direction of the rare US coin market in
general. The 1921 Double Eagle is one of the 87 coins tracked in the
Index. The Index is updated monthly.

Lately, the Rare Coin Values Index is behaving like it thinks its the Dow Jones. That would be an exaggeration of course, because the Index is not climbing at THAT meteoric pace, but it has now closed…